Venus Williams continues the fight for equality in tennis even as her game fades from Centre Court

Filip Bondy of the New York Daily News reports:

WIMBLEDON — Venus Williams insists she is not bored, not frustrated and definitely not finished with tennis.

“I watch the matches and stay extremely busy. Somehow I don’t get any free time still, even though I’m home,” she said in a conference call from Florida. “Of course, I’m rooting on Serena every step of the way. And I definitely expect to be at the U.S. Open, and I’m getting ready for World TeamTennis.”

So there is stuff to do, plenty of it, while Venus rehabs her sore back, tends to the symptoms of Sjogren’s Syndrome and watches her sister go for a sixth Wimbledon title — which would break their personal tie. She is also promoting a short film, “Venus Vs.,” premiering Tuesday on ESPN. That documentary chronicles the battle in tennis for equal pay among sexes, dating back to Billie Jean King’s crusade, somehow still going on today.

You wouldn’t think the issue would be alive and kicking in 2013, but there are enough male players out there willing to complain that both the male and female champions at Wimbledon will earn the same, lucrative $2.5 million prize. Players such as ATP Player Council rep Gilles Simon and Sergiy Stakhovsky, who knocked out Roger Federer here, continue to lobby on behalf of inequality, though Wimbledon set this fair policy back in 2007.

The argument is almost always the same, and is specious. The men say they play longer, best-of-five set matches and should be paid accordingly. Segments of the European media tend to agree, and Serena Williams was forced to explain again this past week why such a theory is discriminatory in practice.

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